During the Cold War, then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) diplomats, attempting to ingratiate themselves with the anti-communist South Korean government, were fond of saying “China and South Korea are like brothers.”
However, the then-South Korean government responded with the rhetorical question: “Who is the older brother and who is the younger brother?”
Drawing upon one’s own life experience and using popular sayings to discuss international politics can be a dangerous thing to do.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) identifies himself as having an extremely high IQ and is fond of using bombastic rhetoric to cut through sensitive or taboo topics.
When called out for his mistakes, Ko behaves like a hooligan, resorting to perverse taunts to shut down critics.
China, which refuses to grant Taiwan reciprocal status as an independent, sovereign nation, studiously avoids any talk of “bilateral relations” with Taipei in its diplomatic language. Instead it performs linguistic acrobatics, employing archaic phrases such as “familial affection” to describe its relationship with Taiwan.
China has also previously used the cheap trick of employing the phrase “descendants of the legendary emperors Yan and Huang” (炎黃子孫), sending a chill down the spine of Taiwanese.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has tinkered with the Chinese saying “one family” to come up with a new slogan: “China and Taiwan are one family and should work together to build the Chinese dream.”
Last week, in a speech to the opening ceremony of the Taipei-Shanghai Forum, Ko parroted Xi’s phrase, saying: “The two sides of the [Taiwan] Strait are one family and the two sides [should establish] a community of common destiny.”
Ko overlooked the glaringly obvious issue: Far from being a friendly family member, China is Taiwan’s enemy. Ko also appears to be wholly ignorant of the fact that, despite twice using the phrase “two sides,” by including the phrase “one family,” he was singing from Xi’s “one China” song sheet. Ko fell into a cunning trap devised by Xi.
Ko thought he was being clever by defining “one family” by using the analogy of a husband and wife, but, in reality, it would be a forced union akin to a shotgun wedding — not a good image.
Ko’s uninspiring metaphor also rides roughshod over modern marriage law. Does Ko think that China would allow Taiwan to apply for a divorce due to irreconcilable differences?
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), trying to reconcile the divide between the pan-blue and pan-green camps over the issue of unification, came up with the notion of a “common life.” He hoped to build a cohesive Taiwanese consciousness so the nation could develop a living for itself as an outward-facing nation.
Xi, on the other hand, talks in highfalutin tones of working together to build a common destiny, yet his overtures to Taiwan are excuses for the furthering of his overinflated “Chinese dream” — which in essence means plundering the assets of other nations.
The residents of Hong Kong are enduring the nightmare of Xi’s “Chinese dream,” which in Hong Kong seems to mean suppression at the hands of fellow Chinese, while anyone who can afford to do so is taking their assets and getting the hell out.
Taiwanese want to be free to determine their own future and are not prepared to be annexed by Beijing. By recklessly and needlessly raising the stakes with wild talk of a “community of common destiny” between Taiwan and China, Ko is arguing that Taiwan’s fate, like Hong Kong’s, should be shackled to China. Has Ko lost his mind or is he still playing the fool?
James Wang is a media commentator
Translated by Edward Jones
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